An SEO audit costs as much as the work that goes into it: how many pages are checked, how deeply a person interprets the results, and whether you end up with a prioritised plan or a list. At seosath the audit is a fixed 690 euros and takes two to three weeks. This article shows how to make different quotes comparable, and uses a real finding to show what you can expect for your money.
Short answer: what does an SEO audit cost?
There is no binding market price, because “SEO audit” is not a protected term. The same word is used for automatically generated tool reports, manual reviews of small websites and multi-week analyses of large shops. A price only becomes comparable once it is clear what is checked and in what form the result arrives.
The tools you can start with yourself are free: Google Search Console shows indexing and search performance of your website, PageSpeed Insights shows load time and Core Web Vitals. What these tools do not provide is interpretation: which message matters, which does not, and in which order to act. That is what you pay for in an audit.
What drives the price
An audit of an eight-page website and one of a shop with several thousand products are two different jobs. These five factors determine the effort and therefore the price:
- Number of pages. More URLs mean more crawl analysis, more duplicate-content checks and more time for prioritisation.
- Languages and templates. Every language version brings hreflang and its own queries, every page template its own technical failure points.
- Competition. In a niche a look at the results pages is often enough. In contested markets you need a comparison with the strongest competitors.
- Manual interpretation. A tool reports that something stands out. Whether it costs rankings is decided by a person who looks at the page, the query and the data together.
- Form of the result. A raw list of a hundred items is quicker to produce than a plan that says what comes first, why, and how much effort it takes.
Comparing quotes: seven questions
If two quotes are far apart, these questions usually explain why:
| Question for the provider | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| How many pages and languages does the price include? | Without a scope limit a fixed price is not comparable. |
| Do you work with access to my Search Console? | Without real data on indexing and queries an audit stays a guess. Google recommends granting read access only. |
| Is every critical finding checked by hand? | Tools also report things that do no harm. |
| Does every finding have a URL example and a concrete instruction? | Only then can your team or agency act on it. |
| Are findings sorted by impact and effort? | Prioritisation is the actual value of the audit. |
| Is there a call to go through the results? | Questions are settled faster in a conversation than by email. |
| Is implementation part of the offer or a separate job? | Some audits are priced tightly because the provider earns on implementation. That is legitimate, but it should be clear. |
SEO audit report example: a finding worth the money
A real finding from the audit of our own website on 28 September 2026, in the format every critical finding has with us:
What was found. Addresses starting with www., for example https://www.seosath.com/en/insights/gdpr-mistakes-website/, answer with status 200 instead of redirecting to the address without www. Two such addresses already show impressions in Search Console.
Why it matters. The same page is reachable under two addresses. The canonical tag correctly points to the address without www, and Google still decided otherwise: according to Search Console’s URL Inspection on 28 September 2026, the canonical Google chose for the English home page https://seosath.com/en/ was not the page itself but https://www.seosath.com/. The English home page was therefore not in the index. For Google a canonical is a hint; a redirect is unambiguous.
What to do. A redirect rule at the host or CDN that sends every page request to a www address with status 301 to the same address without www, keeping path and parameters. Form submissions are left untouched. Effort: under an hour including verification. Priority: high, because a main page is affected and one rule covers every address. Afterwards check in URL Inspection which canonical Google selects; the redirect is a strong signal, not a guarantee.
Three fields, one address as evidence, one instruction someone can carry out without asking back. A finding without these three parts is a hint, not an action. And the example shows why URL Inspection belongs in an audit: without it we would have rated the priority too low.
Warning signs in audit offers
- A tool export is sold as an audit. If the result is only an automatically generated report that nobody has interpreted, you have bought raw data, not an analysis.
- The free audit ends in a sales call. A free audit is not bad in itself. Check whether you end up with an actionable list or only an appointment.
- There is no prioritised plan. Eighty pages of findings without an order push the actual work back to you.
- Rankings are promised. “We will get you to page one” is not an audit result. Google itself advises against providers who guarantee rankings.
Self-check: do you need an audit at all?
- Is your website not live yet, or only a few weeks old? Then Search Console has hardly any data an audit could analyse. Before launch, technical acceptance belongs in the project itself.
- Did you relaunch recently and drop afterwards? That is more of a recovery case. The order of checks is in the article Traffic drop after a website relaunch, the service is SEO recovery. If the relaunch is still ahead, the checklist for a relaunch without losing rankings helps.
- Do you roughly know where the problem is, but not how to fix it? Then a strategy call is often enough instead of a full audit.
- Has your website been running for years without anyone checking it systematically? That is the typical case for a full audit.
What the seosath audit includes
The audit is a fixed 690 euros and takes two to three weeks from start to handover. The fixed price applies to websites of normal size with German and English versions; for very large websites, such as extensive shops, the price is on request. We check technology and indexing, on-page and search intent, content, and architecture and internal linking. We also check the most important commercial queries by hand in the real results page. The result is a prioritised action plan with effort per finding and a call to go through it. Not included are the implementation itself and legal advice. Which tools we use and what exactly is delivered is on the SEO audit page.
If you want a smaller entry point: the strategy call costs 190 euros for 60 minutes. If the focus is consent, cookies and third-party services, the technical GDPR audit for 450 euros is the right check.
Frequently asked questions
What does an SEO audit cost?
It depends on the number of pages, languages, competition, manual interpretation and the form of the result. There is no binding market price because "SEO audit" is not a protected term. At seosath the audit is a fixed 690 euros, with a prioritised action plan and a call to go through the results.
Are free audits worthwhile?
As a starting point, yes, if you end up with an actionable list. Many free audits are automatically generated reports that show what stands out, but not what matters. Search Console and PageSpeed Insights also provide a lot of useful starting data free of charge.
How long does an SEO audit take?
At seosath two to three weeks from start to handover. The duration depends mainly on the size of the website and on how quickly Search Console access is available.
Should I book an audit or go straight to an ongoing retainer?
If your website has never been checked systematically, start with the audit. An ongoing retainer from 990 euros a month then builds on a clear plan instead of assumptions.